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1854-1856. MEEAN-MEER - ABERDEEN
An unpropitious New
Year—Depart for India—A quotation—Distilling water— First news of Sepoy
mutiny - Madras - Conditions at Calcutta - The Soorma - Terrible tales -
Berhampore - Rajmahal - Bhaugulpore - Monghyr—Delhi and Agra cut
off—Rejoin the 10th.
THE year 1857 began with
me inauspiciously. Unrecovered from illness, it was necessary that I
should proceed to the metropolis, there to appear before a Medical
Board. A short extension of leave being granted by that tribunal, the
fact was communicated in a manner personally offensive, with the
intimation superadded that if at the expiration of the period I was
still unfit to join my regiment, I must make way for a more efficient
officer.
The aspect of affairs, so
far as I was concerned, was gloomy. On the one hand I had the prospect
of half-pay for an indefinite time, on a rate' quite insufficient to
meet the ordinary needs of myself and family; on the other, to return to
India in the state of physical illness in which I then was. Taking an
estimate of my worldly means, the circumstance came out that from
insurance, and small amount of investments as they then stood, comparing
the result with income on half-pay, the receipts of my wife as a widow
would exceed by a trifling amount that to which I should be entitled in
the alternative first named. Thereupon decision was quickly made; a
solicitor prepared my "last will and testament." I placed the document
in the writing portfolio of my wife; took leave of her as she lay weak
and ill in bed started away to rejoin my regiment, the children clapping
their little hands as I did so, and shouting, "Papa's gone away for
toys."
Embarking at Gravesend,
the earlier part of our voyage was without special incident. The
excellent selection of books sent on board for the use of the troops—for
a considerable number were being conveyed to India—enabled those who so
desired to get through a good deal of reading. A passage in one of those
works seemed so appropriate at the time to personal conditions that it
was duly noted; namely, "The evil we suffer is often a counter-check
which restrains us from greater evil, or a spur to stimulate us to good.
We should therefore consider everything, not according to present
sensation of pain, or the present loss or injury it occasions, but
according to its more general, remote, and permanent effects and
bearings—whether our higher faculties are not brought more into play,
and our mental powers more invigorated by the meditation and experiments
necessary to secure ourselves."
A considerable part of
the voyage passed without special incident. Some "heavy" weather was
experienced, but in that respect nothing unusual or of a kind likely to
do harm to ship or stores. Great, therefore, was the consternation with
which we learnt that water casks and tanks had so suffered that the sea
water had got into and rendered their contents unusable. At the time we
were in the latitude of the Mauritius, and about twelve hundred miles
east of that island. What was to be done? The chief officer and myself
devised a distilling apparatus, constructed with kettles, boilers,
gun-barrels, and leaden pipes of sorts. Our success was considerable;
some twenty gallons of "fresh" water were thus obtained throughout the
day, and so on during twenty-two that had to pass before land was
reached, though from some of our lady passengers comments were not
wanting as to the "nasty" taste of the product. Meanwhile fuel ran
short; bulkheads and spars bad to be utilised; our ship reduced to
skeleton state. In that condition we arrived off Madras and anchored.
The news we there
received was at the moment astounding, as it was unexpected. The greater
part of the Bengal army in open mutiny; sepoys murdering their officers,
together with their wives and children; widespread disaffection among
the native troops of both the other Presidencies. As written at the
time, and when the intelligence was fresh: "It appears that the
ostensible cause of the outbreak was the issue of cartridges greased
with animal fat. But for a long time past • deep-rooted determination
has existed among the natives to throw off foreign yoke, and to raise
for themselves a king of the Delhi line of succession. Large numbers of
mutineers are said to have fled to the imperial city; many officers and
their families have been massacred."
At Madras the state of
things indicated that something very serious and unusual was in
progress. European residents enrolled as volunteers; Fort St. George in
process of being manned and provisioned; ammunition got ready for
immediate use; at each post where stood a native sentry there was also
placed a British soldier, or pensioner, the latter "embodied" and armed
for the occasion. The regiment' in the fort was held ready for
emergencies; so were, the artillery at St. Thomas' Mount. The Mahomedan
inhabitants of Triplicane, a suburb of Madras, were declared to be in
open revolt.
At the mouth of the
Hooghly the arrival of the pilot on board was eagerly looked for, his
recital of news listened to with painful interest. In that recital
particulars were given of murder and atrocities committed by mutineers
on women and children, the names of the victims at the same time given.
Disembarking at Calcutta early in August, unusual military turmoil was
in progress. At short intervals throughout the city parties of
extemporised volunteers were posted; Fort William was in course of
reinforcement; the streets were patrolled by armed parties of Europeans,
while everywhere an air of unrest seemed to prevail. At Government House
sentries of the Body Guard were on duty, their arms the ramrods of their
carbines. An impression existed that as the date was that of the
Mahomedan festival, the Buckraeed, the occasion was likely to be
celebrated by an attack on the capital—a belief which derived support
from the fact that a spy from the King of Oude, then at Garden Reach,
had been captured while conveying a traitorous letter, his trial and
execution following thereupon without much delay. Other preparations in
progress indicated the conditions of the time; accommodation, stores of
food and clothing, as well as other requirements, were being got ready
in anticipation of women and children, survivors from deeds of blood at
upcountry stations, who were known to be on their way hither. Comments
were very freely made on the energy displayed by commanders in some
instances, in contrast with pusillanimity in others.
A passage order obtained,
I embarked as deck passenger—for there was no spare cabin—on board the
river flat Soorma, proceeding with a body of Sikh troops and their
officers, Sir James Outram and staff being in the steamer to which the
Soo-ma was connected. On the day of our departure we met in the Hooghly
a steamer and its flat, both crowded with ladies and children who had
succeeded in effecting their escape, but whose husbands, fathers, or
other relations had for the most part fallen victims at their respective
stations.
Very terrible were the
tales some of the "refugees," as they were called, told of atrocities
committed within their own knowledge, or of which they had received what
in their estimate was authentic information. A few examples must suffice
:—Two young ladies 1 stripped naked, tied to hackeries, and so driven
through the streets, then dishonoured by sweepers and barbarously
murdered. A lady tied up in her own house, and so forced to witness the
murder of her husband. An officer, to save his wife and child from
dishonour and abuse, shot them both, before being himself cut down. The
massacre at Cawnpore perpetrated by bazaar butchers employed for the
purpose. A young lady with her own hand killing five of her assailants,
then throwing herself upon her sword rather than fall into the hands of
their fellows. A lady, with her husband and child, while endeavouring to
escape on horseback; her husband dying in the jungle as a result of
exposure; she forced to abandon his corpse, and with her child continue
their flight. And so on.
At Berhampore, the 11th
Irregular Cavalry and 63rd N.I. had recently been disarmed; their horses
and arms collected around the military hospital; that building put into
a state of defence; houses in its vicinity in process of destruction;
guns and other arms being sent into the station by the Nawab of
Moorshedabad.
At Rajmahal news received
that mutineers besieging Arrah had been dispersed; that "something" had
happened to a party of the 10th. Havelock's force, in its advance on
Lucknow, severely seized by cholera; losses by death, and inefficiency
by sickness so great that he was under the necessity of returning to
Cawnpore, there to dispose of sick, and obtain reinforcements
preparatory to resuming his advance. Sorties by the rebels in Delhi
repulsed with heavy loss to them; Lord Elgin arrived at Calcutta,
accompanied by some marines and artillery; other reinforcements expected
to arrive in a few days.
At Bhaugulpore the
display of the Union Jack from a Mahomedan mosque indicated the fact
that the edifice was occupied by British troops. We learned also that a
portion of the 5th Irregular Cavalry, suspected of mutinous intentions,
were about to be disbanded by the 90th Regiment in progress up country;
that a few days previous men of the former corps, occupying a station in
near vicinity of this place, murdered Sir Norman Leslie, one of their
officers, and wounded several others; that, notwithstanding these
circumstances, the officer in command urged his confidence in the
loyalty of his men, as a reason that they should be spared from the
disgrace of being disarmed. His prayer was acceded to. That night the
men deserted their officers, rode off with their horses to join the 32nd
N.I., at Deoghur.
Monghyr was in a state of
panic; a small body of the Northumberland Fusiliers, aided by residents,
doing their best to put the dilapidated fort in a state of defence, and
making other preparations against possible emergency.
Communication with Agra
and Delhi only practicable via Bombay; all direct telegraph wires
destroyed; military and residents at the first- named place, secure
within the fort, declaring themselves able "to hold out" for a long
time, notwithstanding that in a sortie against the rebels they had
suffered severely; at Delhi offensive measures against mutineers
languishing by reason of heavy sickness and mortality among our troops
besieging that city.
Rejoining the 10th at
Dinapore, that station was seen to be without sepoy troops; the barracks
formerly occupied by them deserted; the barrack square filled with
refugees from neighbouring places. Next day the 9oth Regiment, in
progress up country, was temporarily detained, as attack by mutineers
was anticipated and had to be guarded against; a considerable number of
the men fallen sick, had on that account to be landed, for they also
were being conveyed by river. A few days thereafter a detachment of the
10th arrived from Jugdispore, at which place they inflicted considerable
loss upon the mutineers, who had taken part in the disaster to be
presently noticed as having befallen a portion of the regiment at Arrah.
But continuity demands some particulars relating to events which led up
to the disaster and expedition so alluded to. |
